A PARADISE Mediterranean island has had a fall from grace after it became a rat-infested, litter-strewn “disaster zone”.
Comino, a tiny outcrop off the coast of Malta famous for its turquoise waters and the Insta-famous Blue Lagoon, welcomes up to 10,000 tourists a day in .
But what was once a tranquil nature reserve has spiralled into chaos – and critics are blaming over-tourism, trash and unchecked commercial greed.
Andre Callus from activist group Moviment Graffitti, said: “It’s an unbearable situation. Operators recruit tourists in places like Sliema and bring them to Comino in massive boats.”
“They pour hundreds of tourists onto the tiny beach. It gets crowded beyond what you can imagine,” he told The Telegraph.
With its crystalline shallows and creds – featuring in Troy and The Count of Monte Cristo – Comino has been launched into global fame.
But the reality is far from glamourous.
Tourists jostle for towel space as loud music blasts from makeshift beach bars serving cocktails in hollowed-out pineapples – which are then dumped, fuelling an island-wide rat explosion.
Nighttime footage shows the pests wandering around as mounts of trash pile up along its once-clean roads.
Mark Sultana, CEO of BirdLife Malta, warned: “There’s now a rodent infestation. The rats go down the burrows of birds like shearwaters and eat the eggs. They [prey] on lizards as well.”
He added: “It’s a disaster. When you have 10,000 people on the island, there’s noise disturbance, the vegetation gets trampled and there is all the waste that is produced, which is a very big problem.”
Social media has turned the once-pristine bay into a circus, locals say, drawing selfie-hungry tourists by the boatload – and making it unrecognisable to those who remember its unspoiledpast.
“This once beautiful island has been turned into a circus and I wouldn’t go near it again if you paid me,”;; one local angry resident vented.
Comino is meant to be a Natura 2000 wildlife site, meaning it should have its most valuable and threatened species and habitats protected by the EU network.
But instead, it plays host to 11 kiosks, blasting music and slinging snacks, with little infrastructure to handle the fallout.
The discarded food and plastic have now created a perfect storm for vermin.
Arnold Sciberras, a leading consultant, says the island is a prime example of what happens when waste and tourism collide.
“Rats can be found where waste is abundant,”;; he told The Times of Malta, warning that Comino’s problem isn’t just aesthetic.
“Rats will gnaw through any plastics and any electrical wiring. Rats also carry various diseases. Rat bites and scratches can result in disease and rat-bite fever. They can contaminate food and drink with rat urine, causing diseases.”;;
The rat population is surging not only on Comino, but across Malta’s tourist hotspots – with Sliema, St Julian’s, BuÄ¡ibba and Qawra all reporting spikes due to poor waste management and garbage bags left festering in the sun.
Joanie Mifsud, from pest control service Comtec, told Times of Malta: “If a person goes to work in the morning and doesn’t return until after waste collection time, they are likely to take their garbage bags out in the morning and leave them there all day.
“The odours are very attractive to rodents, especially when it comes to organic waste.”;;
Construction, too, plays a role – tearing up rodent habitats and exposing drains, pushing rats further into the streets in search of food and water.
Yet on Comino, the rat issue has a particularly damaging effect on endemic species.
“The problem in Comino is bad not only for the public, but mostly for the endemic species found on the island, as the rats are eradicating them,” Sciberras said.
Despite a 2022 protest where activists ripped up deckchairs in defiance, little has changed.
Campaigners allege the government is dragging its feet – even sitting on a long-promised study into the island’s visitor capacity.
Now, Tourism Minister Ian Borg has pledged to halve the daily number of tourists and slash the number of commercial boats anchoring at the Blue Lagoon.
“We must clean up Comino. We can’t keep permitting operators to unload boatloads of 700 or 800 passengers at one time in such a small space. The plan is to reduce the number of passengers by half,” he told The Times of Malta.
He also promised a review of the number of bars, public toilets, and tighter controls on operators – but campaigners say it’s still not enough.
This year, Maltese authorities are lowering the number of tour boat day-trippers from 10,000 to 5,000 in an attempt to reduce mass tourism and alleviate strain on the islet.
Callus also wants the big boats banned entirely and most of the kiosks scrapped.
“We’re not against having two or three kiosks with limits on the food and beverages they can sell. But Comino is a Natura 2000 site which means it should have the highest level of protection.”
This once beautiful island has been turned into a circus and I wouldn’t go near it again if you paid me
Local tourist
BirdLife Malta goes further – saying there should be no kiosks at all.
Instead, food could be shipped in and waste shipped out each day, with a hard cap on visitor numbers.
Sultana said: “Limiting numbers is a good start.
“But we need a public plan that doesn't just focus on crowd control but also on preserving Comino's fragile ecosystem. We are insisting it should have a ticket control system where only a capped number of tickets can be issued each day.”
The Comino crisis is part of a wider problem on the Maltese Islands, where environmentalists say unchecked development, garbage and overtourism are wrecking the landscape – and putting ecosystems at risk.
“Malta being small means that politicians are very accessible and come under a lot of pressure from businesses and developers,”;; said Sultana.
“It’s good that we are finally understanding that far too many people were being allowed to go to the Blue Lagoon. Courageous decisions need to be taken. The cow has been milked for too long.”
